If you are unfamiliar with Turtle Turtles School Days please start here.
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Turtle had gone to school that day with five dollars safely packed in his backpack. He didn’t really understand the concept of money of course, but Miss Teacher had sent him home with a paper saying that today was the BIG CHRISTMAS PARTY. The fluffy had chewed up half of the form while on the schoolbus home, but his daddeh had understood it.
Now properly at school, he gasped at all of the festivities which had been laid out. There was Sanny Cwause! Lots of snowmen! Paper decorations! Rudolph the red horned alicorn, who was an incredibly crass redesign of the beloved character we all know and love but for fluffies. Beyond that though, there was also lots of nummies. All sorts of cookies that were safe for them to eat shaped in festive designs, hot carob sweetened with honey and vanilla that would be cooled down enough to allow them to lap it from bowls, and of course skettis.
The biggest attraction though was a long table set low enough that the fluffies could peruse it’s wares. It was filled with all sorts of cheap knickknacks and toys that was most definitely junk but seemed like treasures to a creature with dumb brains. Turtle skittered up to the table and gasped at the valuable things that were laid out there. There were lots of things to get your mummah or daddeh, like plastic rings to hang their jingly-janglies from or gaudy mugs with various Christmas stuff on it. Otherwise there were things that fluffies would like. A shiny new red ball, or how about a knockoff Cinnamummah plush that didn’t even have weggies? Miss Teacher would have to help them figure out what they could buy since money was a mystery to them, so disappointingly he would have to wait his turn.
Getting into line to sit on Sanny Cwause’s lap, he would watch one of his classmates pout and began to throw a fit. “Smawty Weginald wan ‘aw dah pwesents! Stoopi Sannah!” Reginald was a rather portly blue and purple stallion who was, well, going through a bit of a phase. He stuck his tongue out at Santa, and Mrs Weathers would scoop him off his lap and scold him.
“Reginald! Shocking behavior, honestly! You’ll be spending the Christmas Fair in sorry corner.” The smarty was placed away in the corner reserved for bad fluffies, which was fenced off and didn’t have any fun toys to play with. He immediately began crying and trying to take back the fact he was a smarty, but the damage was already.
Turtle watched all of his fellow classmates go through what they wanted. One wanted to go to Sketti Dave’s Fluffy Funzone, another wished that her mummah would come home, the last one before Turtle babbled something hugs and wub. Even for a fluffy, it was hard for him to understand. Finally it was his turn! Sanny Cwause helped him up on his lap, patted a white gloved hand down on the young stallion’s head.
“Hohoho! What would you like, little fluffy?” He asked in a kindly voice. Turtle knew what he wanted more than anything in the whole world, looking over. There was Sunshine looking like the prettiest, bestest mare in the whole world. Her mummah had decorated her mane and tail with various small baubles that glinted red and green in the light of the room, the sight causing a goofy smile to be plastered over Turtle’s face.
“Tuwtel wub Su’sheen. Sanny Cwause hewp Su’sheen wub Tuwtel?” He asked with a glimmer of hope in his eye. This was actually hard for him to even say because he usually pronounced her name was ‘Sunneh’, but this Santa had been dealing with fluffies for quite some time and didn’t have a problem understanding him.
“Oh? You love Sunshine? Hohoho! I’m sure Sunshine loves you too.” The man with the beard said with all the good nature you could have for a fluffy, which was difficult considering how annoying they were. However, he had mistakenly said this loudly. Way too loud. EVERY fluffy within earshot immediately began to laugh at him and also Sunshine.
“Tuwtel wub Sunneh!” One sneered, an orange and blue stallion who had just days earlier been laughed at for making bad poopies. How quickly some forgot.
“Kissy-wickies ‘n babbehs!” Shrieked a white & red unicorn, stamping her hooves on the floor with apparent delight.
“Dummeh Tuwtel wub Sunneh! Dey am speciaw fwiends!” Came Reginald, sticking his tongue out from behind the bars of the Sorry Corner.
“N-Nuuuuu….!” Turtle was shocked by all of this. Embarrassed. Miss Teacher and Mrs Weathers couldn’t even control the way things were going in here.
“Hae Tuwtel! Haechu! Neba EBAH wub ‘ou!” Sunshine yelled over the discourse, tearing up from being jeered and laughed at. Turtle slumped down from Sanny Cwause’s lap and marched off to one of the closets which contained the litter trays. It smelled like poopies in here and that was OK because that’s how he felt anyways. He’d been betrayed by Sanny Cwause, Sunshine hated him, and everyone was laughing. Curling up in a corner of the closet, he stuffed his head down to the floor and cried himself silly.
Eventually the laughing in the main room had stopped but he still laid there, sniffling but unable to cry anymore. His eyes wanted to make more wawa but there weren’t any left. After everything had been quieted down, Miss Teacher had went to find her errant student. Finding him in the potty closet, she stooped down next to the doorway and brushed a hand against his ear.
“Turtle, sweetie. I know your feelings must be hurt, but it’s OK. It’ll be alright.” Miss Teacher told him, reaching in to gently lift the stallion up in her arms and cradle him close. It made him feel like a babbeh but that was fine. All fluffies craved love and comfort and he was no exception.
“Sunneh hae Tuwtel.” He told her, wanting to cry again.
“Sunshine doesn’t hate you.” A hand stroked gently at the back of his head. “You need to respect her feelings, though. We talked about feelings in class, remember?”
They had. Good feelings. Bad feelings. Positive ways to express anger (sorry poopies didn’t qualify), reasons to be sad (you didn’t want to be a hoof-suckling crybaby over anything). Turtle nodded.
“It’s not your fault about what happened with Santa. I’m sorry you had to experience that, but you have to realize Sunshine has lots of feelings like you. What makes you happy might make her sad. Do you understand?”
Turtle understood that too. Or thought he did. He loved to sometimes take the covers off of daddeh’s bed and roll around with them on the floor, that made him happy, but it made daddeh mad. He gave another nod.
“Tuwtel hab bigges’ wubs ‘fo Sunneh, buh…” One last sniffle. “Am good fwuffy. Nu wan gib Sunneh saddies.” With that, he was set down. Miss Teacher smiled down at him.
“Come on, let’s go choose something nice for your daddy for Christmas.” With that, Turtle was led out from the potty closet and back to the party. His peers had largely forgotten about what had transpired. You could waggle a colorful object in front of them and have them forget the world was ending outside. The stallion chose a squeaky doughnut for Frederick, despite Miss Teacher insisting that was likely more of a choice to give one of his friends. His daddeh always ate doughnuts in the morning though, so he thought it was appropriate and wouldn’t budge.
Sunshine refused to look at him the rest of the day. Turtle tried not to look at her either, but it was hard because she was still the prettiest and bestest mare he ever knew even if she hated him. Even when the day had ended and they were on the bus (which was stinky because Reginald decided to completely destroy a seat with sorry poopies), he just wanted to think about her lots.